Communications and Knowledge Management Intern

Background

UN Women’s multi-donor Fund for Gender Equality (FGE) was launched in 2009 to fast-track commitments to gender equality focused on women’s economic and political empowerment at local, national and regional levels. The Fund provides grants on a competitive basis directly to civil society organizations to transform laws and policies into tangible actions that have a positive impact on the lives of women and girls. Since its launch in 2009, the FGE has delivered USD 66 million in grants to 121 grantee programmes in 80 countries, reaching 536,000 direct beneficiaries and impacting the lives of more than 10 million people.

Grant-making and knowledge management have been prioritized as two key areas of the Fund’s work in 2018. The Fund’s 4th grant-making cycle, supported by the Government of Germany, is working with 9 grantees in scaling up their projects. The upscaling consists on utilizing social innovation approaches and building grantee capacities to help fuel project impact and reach in a sustainable and effective manner. The FGE is also placing special attention to documenting the scaling process, in order to generate knowledge in the rather unexplored area of scaling for impact in gender equality and women’s empowerment programming. In the following months, the Fund will compile achieved results by grantees as part of its annual reporting process and will also take the opportunity of this new cycle to produce new communication products and update existing ones, most notably its web pages. UN Women’s FGE is looking for a 6-month full-time intern that will help in this endeavor while contributing to position the Fund as a global knowledge broker and key player in grant-making for gender equality.

Under the direct supervision and guidance of the Programme & Reporting Specialist, the intern will be responsible for supporting the following tasks:

• The implementation of the FGE’s Social Media Plan to boost the Fund’s visibility and reach;
• The update of the FGE’s web pages;
• The preparation of key communications materials highlighting FGE's results and impact, achievements of its grantees as well as promising practices on women's political and economic empowerment (including relevant print materials, articles, success stories, video scripts, etc.);
• The documentation of the upscaling and social innovation initiatives; and
• The execution of other tasks to support the Fund’s visibility and resource mobilization efforts.

Duties and Responsibilities

Communications:

• Support the implementation of FGE’s Social Media Plan to boost the Fund’s visibility and reach through social media outlets, particularly Twitter, by maintaining social media activity associated to the Fund’s hashtag and increasingly engage new audiences.
• Support updating FGE’s web pages in UN Women’s website, including: revisiting the structure, drafting new contents and implementing changes through Sitcore software.
• Support the preparation of key communications materials highlighting FGE's results and impact, achievements of its grantees as well as promising practices on women's political and economic empowerment, including impact stories for publication in the website, thematic/geographic factsheets, maps, brochures, postcards, videos or other, as needed.

Knowledge Management & Sharing

• Support the documentation of the upscaling and social innovation initiatives by collecting, analyzing and sharing relevant information and knowledge internally and externally using new and existing mechanisms and tools;
• Foster discussions and exchanges amongst grantees on the Facebook Group.
• Update FGE’s programme matrix with key knowledge about key programme strategies and good practices.
• Support the design and development of programme profiles based on the matrix.
• Support the organization of a knowledge exchange webinar among current and former grantees.
• Support other knowledge management activities as needed, including the development of written and audio-visual briefing and learning materials for new grantees, the update of FGE’s intranet and the re-organization of the shared drive.

Resource Mobilization and General Support to FGE Secretariat:

• Conduct research and prepare briefs on potential donors and funding opportunities.
• Support the development of briefing notes on FGE projects as needed.
• Assist with administrative and logistical tasks for the preparation of FGE events and activities, as needed.

Learning component:

The internship is meant to be an entry-level working opportunity and a valuable learning experience in itself. In addition, the intern will have the chance to devote some of the working hours (as agreed by the Supervisor) to participate in available UN learning opportunities including workshops, conferences and events, in order to make the interning experience more complete and fulfilling.

• Increased understanding of UN Women’s work and the UN system.
• Learning different aspects of communications and knowledge management in an international environment.
• Increased knowledge of issues related to gender equality interventions and grant-making.
• Meeting and networking with UN Women colleagues in other units.
• Work as a team member in a multicultural, multi-country setting.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

• Knowledge about or experience in communications, knowledge management and/or graphic design activities.
• Excellent writing skills in English (ability to write clearly and concisely)
• Strong computer skills, including knowledge of and experience using graphic design and photo/video editing tools such as Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, or Premiere are an asset.
• Knowledge or experience using Sitecore software for web content management are an asset
• Ability to think and work logically
• Attention to detail
• Initiative, sound judgment and demonstrated ability to work harmoniously with staff members of different national and cultural backgrounds
• Able to work independently and in a team
• Good in organizing and structuring various tasks and responsibilities

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• The intern must have studies in communications, international development, social science or other similar subject at the university level.
• Be enrolled in a graduate school programme (second university degree or equivalent, or higher); Be enrolled in the final academic year of a first university degree programme (minimum Bachelor's level or equivalent); Have graduated with a university degree and, if selected, must commence the internship within a one-year period of graduation.

Language:

• Excellent communication skills (written and oral) in English are required; Working knowledge of another UN language (particularly Arabic, French and/or Spanish) a distinct advantage

Interns are not financially remunerated by UN Women.

Application Information:

• UN Women will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest.
• Selected applicants must provide the internship application, two letters of recommendation, proof of health insurance and school enrollment, passport, and visa (if applicable)

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment

UN Women Internship Policy:

1.) Applicants to the United Nations internship programme must at the time of application meet one of the following requirements:

• Be enrolled in a graduate school programme (second university degree or equivalent, or higher);
• Be enrolled in the final academic year of a first university degree programme (minimum Bachelor’s level or equivalent);
• Have graduated with a university degree (as defined in (a) or (b) above) and, if selected, must commence the internship within a one-year period of graduation.

2.) UN Women internship programme does not provide a salary or remuneration for the internship;

3.) All the expenses connected with the internship will be borne by the intern, sponsoring Government or institution;

4.) UN Women accepts no responsibility for costs arising from accidents and/or illness or death incurred during the internship;

5.) The intern is responsible for obtaining necessary visas and arranging travel to and from the duty station where the internship will be performed;

6.) The intern must provide proof of enrollment in a health insurance plan, proof of school enrollment, a scanned copy of his/her passport, two letters of recommendation, and application